Pioneering Women in American Architecture

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Pioneering Women in American Architecture

Natalie de Blois with Sigfried Giedion’s Space, Time and Architecture. 

Credit

Staffan Schmidt, 2010

Site overview

Architecture, like many other fields, has traditionally been dominated by men with little room for women to make their impact, or so we think. Pioneering Women, a project initiated by the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation, is attempting to spread awareness of the pioneering role of female architects in the early twentieth century in designing everything from utopian communities to domestic interiors. Through the curation of over fifty meticulously research profiles, as well as media outreach such as websites, videos, and their new podcast "New Angle: Voice" BWAF Pioneering Women is spreading awareness and attention to the pivotal role women played in shaping the built environment of the twentieth century.

Pioneering Women in American Architecture

New Angle: Voice podcast logo

Site overview

Architecture, like many other fields, has traditionally been dominated by men with little room for women to make their impact, or so we think. Pioneering Women, a project initiated by the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation, is attempting to spread awareness of the pioneering role of female architects in the early twentieth century in designing everything from utopian communities to domestic interiors. Through the curation of over fifty meticulously research profiles, as well as media outreach such as websites, videos, and their new podcast "New Angle: Voice" BWAF Pioneering Women is spreading awareness and attention to the pivotal role women played in shaping the built environment of the twentieth century.

Pioneering Women in American Architecture

Florence Knoll, CBS Building interiors, New York City. 

Credit

Robert Damora, 1965

Site overview

Architecture, like many other fields, has traditionally been dominated by men with little room for women to make their impact, or so we think. Pioneering Women, a project initiated by the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation, is attempting to spread awareness of the pioneering role of female architects in the early twentieth century in designing everything from utopian communities to domestic interiors. Through the curation of over fifty meticulously research profiles, as well as media outreach such as websites, videos, and their new podcast "New Angle: Voice" BWAF Pioneering Women is spreading awareness and attention to the pivotal role women played in shaping the built environment of the twentieth century.

Pioneering Women in American Architecture

Norma Sklarek, Gruen Associates, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, 1978

Credit

© Gruen Associates

Site overview

Architecture, like many other fields, has traditionally been dominated by men with little room for women to make their impact, or so we think. Pioneering Women, a project initiated by the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation, is attempting to spread awareness of the pioneering role of female architects in the early twentieth century in designing everything from utopian communities to domestic interiors. Through the curation of over fifty meticulously research profiles, as well as media outreach such as websites, videos, and their new podcast "New Angle: Voice" BWAF Pioneering Women is spreading awareness and attention to the pivotal role women played in shaping the built environment of the twentieth century.

Awards

Advocacy

Award of Excellence

An Advocacy Award of Excellence is given to the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation’s Pioneering Women in American Architecture project, which has rigorously researched and developed profiles of women who have made important contributions to American architecture. All the women documented in the project were born before 1940, at a time when women struggled to be allowed entry into the architectural profession and to be recognized for their work. As such, the names of many of these women are not well known, even among architectural historians. Through a diverse program of publications, lectures, and the New Angle: Voice podcast, the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation has creatively developed a varied and dynamic resource to tell the stories of these women. Documenting their lives and works was an enormous task, requiring hundreds of interviews and countless hours digging through archives, as well as endless fact-checking and photographic research. The scholars who worked on these profiles represent one of the largest groups ever to focus exclusively on women’s contributions to the U.S. built environment and to place the work of women squarely at the center of architectural history. These unparalleled resources were developed over many years, and now serve as the go-to for academics, historians, preservationists, and enthusiasts to dive deeper and advocate for these amazing designers and the sites they created. 

"An incredible amount of time, energy and research has gone into this project. The stories being told of women’s expansive contributions to architecture are exciting and showcased in a way that is accessible to all and will no doubt change history.”

- Todd Grover, Docomomo US Vice-President for Advocacy
Restoration Team

Cynthia Kracauer, AIA (Creator and Executive Director); Virginia Eskridge (Production Coordinator); Brandi Howell (Producer); Alexandra Lange (Writer); Mary McLeod, Ph.D. and Victoria Rosner, Ph.D. (Humanities Advisors); Roman Jaster (Lead Digital Designer)

Location

Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation

141 W Broadway
New York, NY, 10013
More visitation information

Natalie de Blois with Sigfried Giedion’s Space, Time and Architecture. 

Credit:

Staffan Schmidt, 2010

New Angle: Voice podcast logo

Florence Knoll, CBS Building interiors, New York City. 

Credit:

Robert Damora, 1965

Norma Sklarek, Gruen Associates, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, 1978

Credit:

© Gruen Associates

Related News

Original Brief

Pioneering Women of American Architecture began in 2012 with Wanda Bubriski and Beverly Willis, who sought to publicize and uncover the work of American women architects during the early decades of the twentieth century. With help from historians and scholars, they curated a list of fifty women (not an easy task) who contributed to pioneering American architecture during the early twentieth century. With the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Beverly Willis Architectural Foundation (BWAF) was able to form an Advisory Council. With the list completed, the BWAF began developing fifty profiles of these groundbreaking female architects, documenting their lives through archival work, documentation of buildings, and many other methods. The project launched at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2014, granting the public a chance to educate themselves on these architects. However, their work was not finished after completing the profiles, and the BWAF has continued to perform outreach through short films, websites, and now, a podcast.